Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1887-11-16
PERFECT HARMONY.

PEkfECl nAkMUNI.
THE MUSIC OF THE HEAVENS.
METEoRs WORKED sTACCATO PAS
SAGES.
THE HEA YENS A GAMUT.
THE WORLD A MUSICAL INTERVAL
THE THUNDER A BASS CLEF.
DIR. TALMAGE' S SERMON SUNDAY, Eoy. 6TH
BROOKLYN, November 6.-The mai
feature in the music of the Brooklyn Taber
nacle is the congregational singing. 10
day, after the opening song, in which al
the thousands heartily participated, Prof
Browne gave on the organ Scherzo, opu
81, by Mendelssohn. The Rev. T. D,
Witt Talmage, D. D., expounded chapte
in the first book of Samuel, where Saul
possessed of an evil spirit, threw javelil
at David, who was playing on the harl
before him, thus showing that the evi
spirit does not like sacred music. Ths
subject of the sermon was "Concord anl
Discord," and the text was from Job
chap. xxxviii, v. and Z: "Who laid tht
cornerstone thereof; when the morning
stars sang together9" DR.. Dalmage said
We have all seen the ceremony at the
LAYING of the cornerstone of church, asylum
or Masonic temple. Into the hollow of the
stone were placed scrolls of history and i'm
portant documents to be suggestive if, one
or two hundred years after, the building
should be destroyed by fire or torn down
We remember the silver trcwel Or iror
hammer that smote the square piece o.
granite into sanctity. We remember some
venerable man who presided, welding the
trowel or hammer. We remember also the
music as the choir stood on the scattered
stones and timber of the building about to
be constructed. The leaves of the note
books futtered in the wind, and were turn
ed over with great rustling, and we re-
member how the bass, baritone, tenor, con-
tralto and soprano voices commingled. :
They had for many days been rehearsing
the special programme that it might be
worthy of the cornerstone laying.
In my text the poet of Uz calls US to a
grander ceremony-the laying of the foun-
dation of this great temple of a world. The
cornerstone was block of light and the
trowel was of celestial crystal. All about
and on the embankments of cloud stood the
angelic choristers, unroliDg their librettos
of overture, and other worlds clapped shin
ing cymbals while the ceremony went on,
and God, the architect, by stroke of light
after stroke of light, dedicated this great
r n4,.,, 20,
pillars, and sky for frescoed ceiling, and
Towering fields for floor, and sunrise and
midnight aurora for upholstery. "Wbo
laid the cornerstone thereof when the
morning stars sang together?"
The fact is that the whole universe was
a complete cadence, an unbroktn dithy-
ramb, a musical portfolio. The great sheet
of immensity had been spread out, and
them minims, the larger of them sustained
notes. The meteors marked the staccato
passages, the whole heavens a gamut, with
all sounds, intonations and modulations,
the space between the worlds musical in
terval, trembling of stellar light a quaver,
the thunder bass clef, the wind among
trees treble clef. That is the way God
made all things, perfect harmony.
But one day harp-string snapped in the
great orchestra. One day voice sounded
out of tune. One day discord, harsh and
terrific, grated upon the glorious antiphone.
1t was sin that made the dissonance, land
that harsh discord has been sounding
through the centuries. All the work Of
Christians, and philanthropists, and re-
formers of all ages is to stop that discord
and get all things back into the perfect
harmony which was heard at the laying Of
the cornerstone, when the morning stars
sang together. Before get through, if
am divinely helped, l will make it plair
that sin is discord and righteousness is har
mony.
That things in general are out Of tune il
as plain as to a musicien's ear is the un
happy clash of clarionet and bassoon in ar
orchestral rendering.
The worlds health out of tune: Veal
lung and the atmosphere in collision, dis
ordered eye and MONDAY light in quarrel
rheumatic limb and damp weather il
struggle, neuralgias, and pneumonias, ant
consumptions, and epilepsies in flock
swoop upon neighborhoods and Cities
Where you fiud one person with sount
| throat, and keen eye-sight. and alert ear
and easy respiration, and regular pulsation
and supple limb, and prime digestion, ant
steady nerves, you fiud hundred who hav,
to be very careful because this, or that, O
the other physical function is disordered
| The human intellect out of tune: TIL
judQment wrongly swerved, or the memo,
leaky, or the will weak, or the temper in
fammable, and the well-balarced mind ex
ceptional. Domestic life out of tune Onl,
here and there conjugal outbreak of in
compatibility OF tenn per through the divorc
courts, or filial outbreak about father
will through the surrogate's court. or a cas-
| of wife-beating or husband-poisonin.
| through the criminal courts, but thousand
Of families with June outside and Januar-
within.
Society out of tune Labor and capital
their hands on each others throat. Spiri
of caste keeping them down in the socia
scale in struggle to get up, and putin!
those who are up in anxiety lest they hav
to come down. No wonder the old piano
forte of society is all out of tune, whel
hypocrisy, and lying, and subterfuge, ant
double dealing, and sycophancy. and char
latanism and revenge have for six Thousand
years been banging away at the keys ant
stamping the pedals.
On al sides there is a perpetual ship
wreck Of harmonies. Nations in discord
Without realizing it so wrong is the feeling
of nation for nation that the symbol!
chosen are fierce and destructive. In thi
country, where our skies are full of robins
and doves and morning larks, we have oul
national symbol, the fierce and filthy eagle
as immoral a bird as can be found in all tht
ornithological catalogues. In Great Britain
where they have lambs and fallow deer
their symbol is the merciless lion. In Rus
sia, where from between her frozen north
and blooming south all kindly beasts dwell
they choose the growing bear aud in the
worlds heraldry favorite figure is th'
dragon, which is winged serpent, ,ferocioui
and deathful. And so foud is the world
of contention that we climb out through The
heavens and baptize one of the other plan
cts with the spirit of battle, and call i
Mars, after the god of war, and we give tt
the eighth sign Of the zodiac the name O
the scorpion, a creature which is chiefly
celebrated for its deadly sting. But, afte
all, these symbols are expressive Of ths
way nation feels toward nation. DiscorG
wide as the continent and bridging tn,
seas. l suppose you have noticed how
warmly in love dry goods stores are will
other dry goods stores, and how highl!
grocerymen think of the sugars of thu
prOcervmen on the same block And il